Category : Library Leadership

Have you ever wanted to create a new initiative in your library, but weren’t sure where to start? How can we make our plans fit the needs of our community, get investment, create involvement throughout our organization, and make it all pay off?

On this show, we talk with Sari Feldman, Executive Director of Cuyahoga County Public Library. Under her leadership, the system received the highest overall score among America’s largest metropolitan library systems in Library Journal’s Index of Public Library Service for many years running. Sari served as Past President for both the American Library Association and the Public Library Association.

She shares the ways in which she started a meaningful initiative for her community called, the Reconnect with Reading Campaign. It’s a successful example we all can use as we kick off initiatives of our own. It will also speak to the readers-heart in each of us. Thank you for tuning in.

Full Transcript

Have you ever wondered how you can embrace values in your library that make everyone a leader in every role, as well as create ‘mindshare’ with stakeholders and decision-makers about the importance of your library?

On today’s show you will get practical ways to do just that as we talk with Diane Foster, City Manager in Park City, Utah. She manages, directs, and coordinates municipal services with a background from the private sector, primarily in the high-tech and ski industries.

During her tenure, Park City developed a high-tech Library with a $10 million budget that involved everyone and utilized the skills, ability, knowledge, and energy of a town of 8,000 residents to create a 21st Century Library that now serves over 175,000 visitors per year.

Full Transcript

As librarians, we are always asking ourselves, “What does our community need? How can we make a difference in the lives of individuals and the community as a whole?” On this episode of Library Leadership Podcast, we talk with Kendra Trachta, Deputy Director of Sno-Isle Libraries, a two-county system in northwest Washington.

She helps us answer these questions by guiding us to become data-driven libraries and shares that this is not really about numbers; it’s about using numbers to understand people and purpose. She takes us from passive to active means for making informed decisions. Her favorite question is “Why?” Yours will be, too, after listening to this show.

Full Transcript

Leadership is emotional. People are often promoted into leadership positions based on their emotional intelligence, which research has shown to be twice as important for leaders as technical skills. Those high in this ability are rated as better leaders by the people who work for them and know how to set a positive emotional tone in their organizations to lead success.

On this show, Jason Martin, Associate Dean of the Walker Library at Middle Tennessee State University, provides an overview of emotional intelligence and its importance to library leaders.

Full Transcript

Are you among those who started out in libraries accidentally? Many of us first discover librarianship through entry-level work only to find it is the perfect long-term career choice. That was certainly the case for Anthony Morris who we talk to on this episode of Library Leadership Podcast.

Anthony published an article in the May/June 2018 edition of Public Libraries Magazine called, “Many Hands Make for Better Work: Enhancing the Library with Entry-Level Workers.” He shares ways that libraries can engage entry-level workers to utilize their unique talents while bringing great benefits to our organizations.

By listening, you will discover win-win ways to engage a person in library work that develops their passions and interests, while celebrating how many hands can lighten the work to make our libraries a success.

In July 2018, a Forbes op-ed column argued that libraries should be replaced by Amazon to ‘save taxpayers money’, which led to an outcry that resulted in the article ultimately being taken down.

Our host, Adriane Herrick Juarez, reached out to Kym Cadle founder of Pure Ambition a consulting company that believes living and leading with intention is paramount to creating the change that our current times demand.

Kym has taken teams that are experiencing cascades of rapid growth to rates of even higher success through building capacity for mindfulness and emotional intelligence.

In this interview, she turns her attention to libraries to suggest ways for creating the capacity to deal with unprecedented pace in a way that is intentional and informed by values.

We can all be involved to transcend stressors through a process of awareness, attention, intention, and action. Kym likes to say, “We can’t stop the wave, but we can learn to surf.” Listen as he shares ways to create dynamic outcomes by taking this stance. Kym can be reached at http://www.pureambitionconsulting.com/.

Have you ever had to have a difficult conversation at work? If so, you’re not alone. In an information landscape where change is the status quo, these conversations come with the territory. Being a library leader means knowing how to confidently steer these conversations so that they lead to productive results. On this episode Catherine Soehner, author of the book Effective Difficult Conversations, teaches us how.

Catherine Soehner is the Executive Director of the Eccles Health Sciences Library and is the Associate Dean for Research and User Services at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library. She provides vision and leadership for a wide range of library services delivered onsite and virtually.

Full Transcript

Change comes at us rapidly from all directions. What innovations do we implement in response to current developments in libraries? On this episode of Library Leadership Podcast, we talk with Miguel Figueroa, Director for the Center for the Future of Libraries (www.ala.org/libraryofthefuture), an initiative from the American Library Association.

Miguel shares how everyone in libraries can be empowered to think about the future with unique access points and perspectives. He guides us in evaluating innovations, based on the values of the profession to provide forward-thinking services to our communities. From virtual reality to daily resource allocation, this show helps answer your questions about when to act, or not act, and how to prioritize trends.

Full Transcript

There are some leaders who are able to share their journey in such a way that it makes all of us want to come along for the ride. Felton Thomas is just such a leader. As Director of the Cleveland Public Library and past-President of the Public Library Association, his visionary style and pay-it-forward attitude has made a huge impact on the profession.

Climb on board as we listen to what brought him to where he is today, the leader of a 5-star rated library known as the “People’s University” a place where everyone can seek out knowledge in ways that are beneficial to themselves, their community, and the world.

Why We Burned Our First Leadership Book, or How to Develop a Leadership Path that Holds Personal Meaning

Presenter: Adriane Herrick Jaurez

Co-Presenter : Becca Lael – Park City Library

Utah Library Association Conference

Thursday, May 16, 1:30-2:20pm

Mountain America Expo Center

How can we develop a leadership path that holds personal meaning? Inspired by interviews from the Library Leadership Podcast, a variety of strategic insights will show us how everyone can improve their leadership to personally shape their workplace, the community they serve, and the trajectory of the library profession. Attendees will learn how one library manager’s leadership path was transformed to include personal meaning, resulting in braver development.

Commencement Speaker for the Graduation of the Utah State Regional Master of Library Science ProgramFriday, January 5, 7:00pm Viridian Event Center I will be giving a commencement speech for the graduating class of Cohort 12.

Utah State History Conference
October 10th– 11th, 2017 Rio Grande Depot, 300 S. Rio Grande Street, Salt Lake City, UT Honoring the Past, Moving Into the Future: The Renovation of the Historic Park City Library that Developed a Dynamic 21st Century Library while Achieving National Historic Register Designation.

Nevada/Mountain Plains Library Association Joint ConferenceOctober 16th – 18th, 2017 Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, 50 US-50, Stateline, NV89449
Lightning-round presentation on how The Park City Library recently underwent a $9.6M library renovation that included the creation of a media lab that included a sound booth, green screen, film equipment, and other high tech amenities to foster independent media production in a ‘film-centric’ mountain town that is accessible to everyone, not just movie producers.